Insurance agents mired in health exchange

Peter Lee, head of the new state health exchange Covered California, speaks to a full room of interested residents during an open house in Buena Park which explained new health law provisions and the healthcare options available to working and unemployed residents of California. FILE: KEVIN LARA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Like most licensed health insurance agents in the state, John Wilson decided it was crucial to be able to sell the offerings of Covered California, the public insurance exchange established under the Affordable Care Act. So far, though, he's been unable to get certified to do so.

It's not for lack of effort. Last month the Temecula-based agent signed up for the exchange's certification training, which included an eight-hour class in Irvine followed by another four-hour course online with a test at the end of it. Wilson completed all the steps and then waited for an e-mail confirmation with final paperwork and instructions for paying the $58 fee, which he had been told would take two days to arrive.

When the e-mail didn't come, Wilson logged back online and was informed that he had not completed the test. He called Covered California to inquire and was told to wait two weeks, then try again.

He tried again last week but still could not complete the online course because the website would not display one of the course modules. He is still trying.

“I'm kind of at a dead end. I would be happy to enroll people in Covered California, but I can't get their computer system to work for me,” Wilson said. “Two weeks is a ridiculous amount of time to wait for something like this. If I called any insurance carrier with this kind of problem, they'd get it done in 15 minutes because they would want the business.”

Wilson is not the only frustrated insurance agent in California. Numerous others have encountered similar problems in their efforts to get certified with the exchange.

As of last Friday, 1,295 insurance agents statewide had completed their certification and another 3,382 were “in progress,” according to data released Tuesday by Covered California. That's a small fraction of the 17,768 who have signed up for the training program.

Some agents, like Wilson, have completed steps only to discover they weren't stored by the system. Others have struggled with frozen screens, “submit” buttons that don't work or a series of “error” screens. Others have simply been unable to log on.

While these glitches shrivel in comparison to the debilitating failures of the online exchange that the federal government is operating for 36 other states, they are nonetheless real. And Covered California – which has resolved some other early technological hiccups – knows it must address them.

“We're aware that some insurance agents are having technical trouble with the certification process and we're working to improve the system now,” said Sarah Sol, a spokeswoman for Covered California. “We appreciate that it's part of their livelihood.”

To be fair, some of the delay can be attributed to the actions of agents themselves, who are free to take the course and complete the test at their convenience.

Cathy Daugherty, an agent who works at Moore Benefits Inc. in Irvine, said she completed the initial eight-hour course, but then decided to hold off on the rest until November, in part because of the difficulties many of her colleagues were reporting. “I said, ‘You know what, I've got more important things to deal with, so I won't get into the crowd. I'll sit back for a few more weeks.' ”

But it's clear that a big reason for the delay in certifying agents is the complexity and spotty performance of the computer system.

Jacqueline Piovan, a regional sales manager at Word & Brown in Orange, said that after she registered for certification, she got a letter 15 days later giving her a username and password to begin the training program. But when she typed them in, the website told her she was not registered. She hit the refresh button several times, but kept getting a message that said “page not found.”

“People are antsy because they want to represent Covered California to their clients, and of course you can't really do that until you get the notice from Covered California that you can in fact go out and sell,” said Patrick Burns, president-elect of the California Association of Health Underwriters. “They have committed to us that they are going to get that process going faster, so we are hopeful that will happen.”

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